The LOTR Minimates line started with an exclusive figure – the big bad scourge of Middle Earth Sauron was a Tower exclusive back in June 2004, and now AFX have provided another exclusive set of two Elves to fight him. This is a pack containing an Elven archer and an Elven Swordsman, dressed in the Elven armour seen in the Prologue sequence of Fellowship of the Ring. Thanks to Shanester on the Art Asylum forum for very kindly getting me a set of these.

Packaging

The packaging for this 2-pack is the same as for the other LOTR 2-packs. Although you can see exactly what you are getting through the window, the cards are larger and more unwieldy than the dinky little Marvel 2-pack boxes. Also, this style of packaging heralds the return of the twist-tie menace which is never a good thing.

The Figures

Elven Archer

The 2 figures in this set share many of the same details, as they represent similar troops in a big army. However the Elven archer has the more composed and serene facial expression. The helmet looks great, with some nice etched detailing, and gives both figures a very regal appearance. It is quite loose though, and the curl at the bottom impedes some of the head articulation a little.

The outfit is essentially the same for both figures, but there are minor differences. The colour is predominantly gold, with some nice detailing on the wrist pieces. The shoulder armour looks nice but does hinder posability. The “skirt” also looks good. However whereas before the lower torso would have no articulation due to the rigid “skirt” pieces, AA have come up with a useful addition to the LOTR line – hinged “skirts”, similar to what was used for the Darkseid Minimate in the C3 range. This allows the “skirt” to flip up, revealing the legs and allowing them to move forward. I would hope to see the hinge idea used more in the future.

The archer comes with his bow, and also has a quiver molded on his cloak. A small cluster of arrows can be placed in this quiver, although they are the quarrels only and not full size arrows. The main flaw with this figure is that he can not really be posed using the bow in any meaningful way. The articulation on Minimates is great, but still can’t pull off looking good with a bow. Legolas also suffered from this, but he had other weapons you could pose him with.

Overall, the detailing and look of the Elven Archer is spot on, but his inability to use his weapon is a drawback.

MMC Score – 6 out of 10

Elven Swordsman

Unlike the calmer looking archer, the Elven Swordsman has a snarling expression on his face, making him look like someone you do not want to get on the wrong side of. The helmet fits loosely on this figure as well as the archer.

The costume is very similar to the archer, with two differences. He does not have a quiver sculpted on the cloak, instead his skirt piece has a hole in the side to peg his scabbard into. The archer’s skirt piece does not have a hole.

The Swordsman comes with a superbly detailed slashing sword with an insanely long handle, and a scabbard. This weaponry is of the usual high quality associated with the LOTR Minimate weapons, and being a sword means that he can use it far more convincingly than the archer can use his bow, adding to the play value of this figure.

Overall, the Swordsman’s weaponry sets him slightly higher than his archer counterpart. However for army building purposes these figures definitely hit the mark, being two generic troop builders that have a real look to them when displayed together.